BlackBerry Storm OS 4.7.0.76, other versions left dead in their tracks

What’s that? You somehow got a hold of the 4.7.0.75 OS for the BlackBerry Storm? Well, in this heavily-connected world we call BG Land, you’re already rockin’ something old. We’re running 4.7.0.76 on our Storm, and boy, does this thing improve a whole heap more than 4.7.0.75 did. Here’s a list of the improvements we’ve found (and bugs):

For starters, switching portrait to landscape is even faster than on .75. We’re talking half a second to make a clean switch. No more “double keyboards” (half SureType, half QWERTY) on the screen.

After around a full day of use, our battery is sitting pretty at 50%. This is probably a 25% increase over .65. We can’t say how much better it is than .75 since that wouldn’t be fair seeing as how it wasn’t in use for long, but we believe there will still be an improvement.

There was this annoyance where you’d go to tap on an icon, it wouldn’t select if you tried to tap it fast. That’s all cleared up here…

This was in .75, but DTMF tones in the phone application no longer lag and cause you to hit the wrong prompts, etc.

The issue where the keyboard sometimes disappears when you are typing is still there.

In the browser, if you tapped once in the .65 build, the bottom navigational toolbar would hide and so would the top status bar. In .75, only the bottom bar would hide but the top bar would stay. Here in .76, both hide again.

In the browser, when you flip to landscape, the text size is increased tremendously. It scales up to fit the width of the page. Very helpful.

There has not been one reboot so far. In .65 there were probably two a day

There’s a weird bug where sometimes the back button doesn’t actually work. Can’t figure out what causes this to happen. Oh well.

When navigating through the music player, playing MP3s is probably 50% better than .65 and 20% better than .75. Very, very quick.

When navigating through photos, thumbnails appear almost instantly. Even on the Bold it sometimes took a while to load, and it loaded them one-by-one. Here they basically just pop-up after a second or two.

Overall data connectivity feels a little slower in our non-scientific tests. Web pages take a little longer to load and we get the infamous BlackBerry clock when sending messages and Messenger nonsense.

The camera application has way more problems than it started out with. For instance, the green autofocus rectangle no longer appears, the bottom navigational buttons flicker on and off, and it’s just all around chaos. The camera app in .75 was a little better than .65 so don’t get too worried, we’re sure this will be cleared up.

The OS version, again, is 4.7.0.76 and the platform version is 4.0.0.96. We have no idea in terms of when (or if) this version will be released, and have no additional information for you at this time. Other than the fact that your leaked OS is older than the one we’ve got. Got any questions? Let’s answer a couple of them off the bat… No, we will not send you the software. No, we have no idea what the status of this is, whether it’s being tested on Verizon, or anywhere else, and we don’t know if this will ever be released. It probably will, we just don’t want to promise anything we can’t 100% confirm. The friendly staff at BGR including myself are around to help if you’ve got any others. Just fire them off in the comments.

VZW has said all current orders are shipping on the 15th. I’m hoping I will see mine by the 17th/18th or sooner thereafter. I never ordered a phone (always got it in the store), so I don’t know how they ship or where from, etc.

http://www.k5live.com Likeabite

@ Kevin I don’t know if this helps but mine shipped from PA…yours might be from a different location based on where you live.

Kevin

I live in Southern NJ, so that usually means 1 day by all of the carriers like UPS, FedEx, etc. Thanks.

Razor

Just talked to Verizon and they said the Blackberry Storm OS Update ending in .75 will be available tomorrow afternoon via the Desktop Manager.

NolanBerry

How about the OTA?! OTA!? OTA?! Aren’t Storm’s capable of doing this OTA?!

Razor

I talked to 2 Verizon Stores and they did not mention OTA. They said connect your Storm to the Desktop Manger and check for the update in the afternoon that it was being loaded to the servers tonight around midnight.

Razor

My guess is that Desktop Manager is the best way to go for 2 reasons.
1. It might not be an OTA Update due to the size of the update.
2. OTA will not backup your Storm prior to the update as far as I know.

NolanBerry

If not OTA, then can I take it to the store for them to do the update?

Razor

I would think so.

DJF8

I know that the storm is all Buggy and one day soon these bugs will be fixed, but my main thing is, can they make a software upgrade so that we don’t have to click the stupid touchscreen button (at least an option during Software Setup)?

Why does every other company have a normal touchscreen and blackberry has to use this stupid clicking touchscreen?

I can’t type as fast because of this clicking BS. Everything gets spelled wrong.

Touchscreen is a touchscreen, why the Button RIM?

Iphone Touchscreen, My hat goes off to ya.

DeckRoid

huh… I love the click touchscreen. I can type faster on this than my buddy’s iPhone…

and I find that the clicking has improved my typing. I sent a long sms thru said buddy’s iphone and then the exact same from my storm. less typos on the storm. For me. I mean, its all about choice and what you like.

Sal

I am running the .75 OS and it is pretty good, however, the portrait-landscape while vewing photos is REALLY slow. I will load a picture and turn the device either portrait or landscape and it takes 10 seconds for it to change the picture. This has become worst since I upgraded to the .75 OS. Anyone else finding this problem?

geoff

@Likeabite Thanks for that bit. Im anxious to get the phone! One of my friends has one, he upgraded to .75, as i have not seen .65, and it is awesome. doesnt seem buggy, everything’s smooth and fluid. I hope mine is like that. :-)

I wait for thee, blackberry storm, when dost thou wisheth to arrive in my quarters?

BillBerry

I started with .65 for a couple of days and went to .75 and love it!

Anyone have tips on moving the cursor to the exact location within text (email, SMS, URL, etc)? I’d like to move forward and/or backward within text without having backspace (BS). I can never get my thumb or finger to place the cursor where I want it.

Related to the issue above, what’s the best way to select a range of text (email or SMS) for copy/paste function?

Help is appreciated!

John

I upgraded to .75 yesterday and have been very pleased. .65 was extremely frustrating, almost unusable. Couldn’t even answer many calls that came in, seemed to ignore the “answer” button. I had never messed with a PDA’s OS previously, but the upgrade instructions were flawless.

I have the same issue Sal mentioned regarding showing photos, although my experience may be even worse. Device really locks up for about 30 sec after swiping through a few photos. Since this isn’t mission critical to me, I’m just avoiding using camera/photo view until .76 or higher.

Boy Genius, what’s the latest on .76 or higher for Verizon or at least getting a leak posted?

http://Pre-orderisrunningatALLBESTBUYS Tommy

I downloaded .76 from Bell and deleted the Vendor.xml file and it works great.

Just wanted to let everyone know it seems faster than .75. I think it renders pictures faster and the music players is twice as fast.

John

Tommy, are you on Verizon?

FoneFreek

.75 has been out for a few days. A very slight improvement over the nightmares of .65 but has created several new bugs. The speed on the picture orientation is improved slightly, but occasionally gets stuck in one position (usually landscape) for several long seconds (10 plus). Many times the software will randomly stop responding to screen clicks, maybe takes 5 or 10 presses to get a reaction and launch the selection! This issue wasn’t here on .65. There are several more issues (at least with my phone), but way too many list. They’ve got a long way to go to get this phone anywhere near perfect. It is easy to see the potential, so I hope they get busy on the fixes! I was told by Verizon that if you aren’t using the Navigator to delete it as it runs in the background and slows it down. I tried that and it made no noticeable difference. FRUSTRATING!

DLew

So … where can we get a hold of .76? We earlier adopters of the Storm have got to stick together ya know!

http://www.clementbphotography.com ClementeB

Hmmmm…I love an update as much as the next person, but it seems like you luck up on getting a new set of problems in 75….thus I may just wait and deal with the slowness .65 instead of a stuck picture or any other new bug. Everything works fine on mine, it’s just sluggish as all get out! Verizon offerings of having the newest or even envious designed phones has been meager at best…..yeah, yeah, we know, you have the best network! We finally get a somewhat decent design, sure it possess some panache as the iphone, but must it also follow in the foot steps as being buggy as well? Geeeeeeze!

j

not very cool telling everyone how much better the phone operates with YOUR firmare updates and not share it. jackass.

Krivs

I got a bug with the .75 OS ,where in the landscape mode that I sometimes use it to type with in google talk or compose emails, it would automatically switches to the camera mode, then all the buttoms are becoming no reaction, and I have to click the camera convenience key to release it back, I am wondering is this normal or just in my phone? thanks.

FoneFreek

Same camera bug with my version .75, along with countless other issues with this version. I’m beginning to wonder if it will ever be good enough. After playing with it incessantly for several days, I’ve come to the conclusion that this phone can’t work in a business environment that requires fast, accurate tying… even if they ever do get all the bugs worked out. The “keys” are just too small and the screen press feel isn’t consistent everywhere on the screen… mostly in the corners and around the edges. This makes it very awkward and unnatural to type quickly… combine that with the lag and key size…. aaagggghhhhh!!!!

Lamar

Been with T-Mobile for 5 years. Various blackberrys. Ordered a storm and switched to Verizon. Very disappointed with my storm. Got it on the 28th. Immediately noticed the lag and other problems. Called Verizon. They seemed to have no idea that there could possibly be any problem. Went to the local store. No one had EVER complained about the lag or bugs or the slow typing. Googled storm. Every youtube and comment is negative. Everyone has the same issues. Upgraded the software. Same problems. I should have stuck with the Pearl. I had no problems with it, could type one handed very quickly with just a thumb, instantly take pics one handed, oh and it actually would work as a phone! I complained to verizon to cancel my service and they finally waved the $35 restocking fee. I’m going today to get a pearl. Maybe a curve. Bottomline, if you are in business and want a blackberry, skip the storm. If you want a toy, use the iphone.